Away from the high-profile pharmaceutical sector, another healthcare segment is buzzing with activity, and beginning to get noticed.

The indigenous diagnostic solutions segment is teeming with young companies working on an array of solutions, from manufacturing test kits to data analytics, and in segments ranging from Tuberculosis (TB), Covid-19, antibiotic resistance to genome sequencing, mapping congenital diseases, cancers and other ailments. Interestingly, these companies are finding support from well-known industry names including Serum Institute’s Adar Poonawalla and erstwhile Thyrocare’s Dr A Velumani, for example.

Late last month, the segment received another heavy-weight investor, when Zydus Lifesciences picked up 6.5 per cent stake in home-spun diagnostic company Mylab Discovery Solutions. The alliance brings together a pharmaceutical company, vaccines-major and diagnostics firm, a first of sorts, says Hasmukh Rawal, Mylab’s Managing Director.

Explaining the explosion of start-ups and investor interest, he says, the diagnostics sector has been long neglected in healthcare. It was a “me-too” segment (without innovative products), and avoided, though all that changed with Covid-19, where the importance of right diagnosis in treatment was amplified, he points out.

The Zydus investment in Pune-based Mylab is strategic, he says, and the aim is to help decentralise healthcare and make it affordable. High-end tests, once a domain of only the large labs and big metros, are increasingly becoming available to smaller labs in more cities, he added.

Zydus acquired 6.5 per cent stake in Mylab from Rising Sun Holdings, an investment company owned by Adar Poonawalla, for ₹106 crore. Poonawalla still holds about 42.5 per cent in Mylab.

Companion diagnostics that help diagnose and tailor treatment, depending on how a drug works in a patient, is the future, says Rawal. Mylab was among the first off-the-blocks in developing a locally-made test for Covid-19. It’s range has since increased, with plans for segments like immunology, among others, the MD says.

Simmering with activity

While some pharma companies are getting actively involved in the segment, others are passive in their support, observes Rawal. Lupin launched its own diagnostic chain about a year ago; Cipla invested ₹25 crore in picking up 21.05 per cent stake in Achira Labs, that makes point-of-care medical test kits in India; and now there’s Zydus’ investment.

Between manufacturing kits, reagents, data analytics and services, the diagnostics sector ranges between ₹85,000 crore to ₹1.25-lakh crore, he estimates. Companies in the fray include, Molbio Diagnostics, Medgenome, HaystackAnalytics and MapmyGenome.

Recent reports indicate that Reliance Industries too would roll out a genome test kit from Strands Life Sciences (acquired in 2021). Just this month, Lord’s Mark Industries, a diversified business group, launched its subsidiary to focus on genome testing, with plans for saliva-based technology for testing.

Portable diagnostics company Molbio earned its stripes as the inventor of Truenat, a first-of-its-kind point-of-care, multi-disease Real-Time PCR platform. It recently expanded into the imaging space, through the acquisition of 70 per cent in Prognosys Medical Systems, maker of the Prorad digital x-ray units.

Tailoring treatments

Dr Anirvan Chatterjee, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Mumbai-based HaystackAnalytics explains, the next 5-7 years will see the diagnostics landscape streamline between point-of-care (PoC) and genome sequencing. The PoC tests will involve pregnancy tests, Covid-19, wearables, etc, and the specialised ones will involve giving labs and hospitals detailed reports based on multiple data-points generated from the deep-dive into DNA, he explains. Increasingly, more companies will move away from a protein-based approach to a biomarker-based detection, he forecasts, as the world moves towards personalised treatment.

HaystackAnalytics is a health-tech company that drills down down data for use by diagnostic companies to give personalised solutions to patients. It was initially funded by grants from the Department of Science and Technology and the Centre’s BIRAC, besides being backed Thyrocare’s Dr A Velumani.

Gaurav Srivastava, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, HaystackAnalytics says, their technology enables more hospitals, labs and doctors to access genomics.

Haystack’s portfolio has the ‘Omega TB whole-genome sequencing test’ that uses a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platform to identify drug resistance in TB patients. Its ‘Universal Infectious Diseases test’ helps gather genomic data to identify existing and emerging infections, they say, and even provides information on drug resistance to tailor treatment.

As these companies develop products for India, with global plans as well, Rawal sums up the confidence: “If you are successful in India, you can be successful anywhere else.”

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